Always wanted to turn some pens.

[WarnerConstCo.]

I had a busy two days the end of last week.  After I picked up a 20" Clement jointer I headed south from the capital of WI and made my next stop.

Old shed up on the hill.



I think there is more then just bees, rats and a foot of filth in there...



This pattern maker's lathe was hiding in there amongst the filth, rodents and roof leaks.



First thing we did (the owner and I) was to brush hog the weeds down, then use a string trimmer to clean up what we missed.  Then he brought me a bucket of soil to spread around and fill all the holes so we didn't break an ankle.  Then I started cleaning.  I found a bee hive, lathe tooling and two front loader buckets worth of trash. 

I was still thinking how I wanted to get this thing out of there, so I decided to start pulling parts off, just in case things went wrong. 

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

About that time, I decided I could jack it up and put 2x6 runners under it length wise and get it over the concrete threshold and slid out to fresh air.

The onwer asked if I wanted to go eat some lunch and get some lumber, I could not turn him down, so off we went.  He paid for lunch and the needed lumber.

We got back and my reinforcements arrived, a friend from Rockford.  We made a plan, used my pallet jack and some blocking and got it lifted up and runners bolted to the sets of legs.  Next we jockeyed it around with the pallet jack and then was able to get a strap on it and hooked to the loader bucket of the tractor. 

I was able to steer the end in the building with my big johnson bar and out it came into the daylight.





Then we picked it up and sat it on the trailer.  Then walked back up the hill and proceeded to take the counter shaft with clutch and hangers down (that was heavy and it got Karl all dirty).

Then we put it all back together on the trailer and loaded up all the goodies that came with it. 





Here is everything that came with it, I have no clue as to what most of it is as this is my first lathe and I have never turned a thing before....

I hope to knock out some killer pens on this thing.

 

[Stephen B]

Looks like you will be turning pens for giants!

Thank you for the post, a very enjoyable read.

Looking fwd to more as you restore this treasure.

 

[Rick Christopherson]

I've turned a lot of pens, and I just want to caution you about letting one of the blanks getting out of balance. If the pen blank starts to wobble, it could tip that lathe right over from the vibration. It's a very dangerous hobby!!!!

 

[Administrator_JSVN]

Looks like you will be turning pens for giants!

Yeah, or telephone poles...  [poke]

Nice score, D.

 

[fdengel]

Based on the parts I'm seeing in those photos, this is a metal lathe, rather than a wood lathe as typically used to turn pens.

You don't have the right tooling to turn pens the "normal" way - you could probably improvise with it, but it won't be an ideal experience.

That doesn't mean this could not be adapted to the purpose - you will probably want to add a tool rest designed for turning wood (and which can be fit to the lathe) and a set of handled woodturning tools, plus the mandrel (for which you will need to know the spindle tapre, which you may be able to figure out from some of the centers that are already there).

Most of the mandrels used for pen turning come with an MT1 or MT2 sized tapre; a big lathe like that probably has something else so you might need to add a collet chuck or find some other solution to get a mandrel mounted on that lathe.  (This is not unique to metal lathes, as larger wood lathes would present you with this complication as well).

The tooling which is used on a metal lathe mounts to the lathe itself and is adjusted using the wheels, rather than being held in the hands against a tool rest the way that normal woodturning tools are.

Again, it can be made to work, but it is not the best situation for making wooden pen barrels - though with a lot of practice, having access to the metal turning equipment does mean you could probably make your own unique "kits" with enough practice...

As others have said - great find, just so you realize what you're getting into  8)

 

[peter halle]

I might be wrong (I often am) but I think the reference to turning pens on that was meant to in humor based on the size of the lathe.  [big grin]

Peter

 

[jonny round boy]

I think it IS a wood turning lathe. That is not for turning metal...

 

[fdengel]

The accessories are definitely for working with metal.

If you look at the fifth picture from the top (the one with the three "wheels" on it), that unit right under the middle wheel on the picture is the cross slide of a metal lathe.  The wheel moves the tool post (which holds the cutting tool) toward and away from the spinning work piece.  The tool post holds the tool (whcih does not have a handle) because the forces involved in turning metal can be too much for a person to reasonably withstand when trying to hold the tool by hand, the way you can when turning wood.

Wood lathes have a tool rest which a handled tool rests on to cut into the wood - nowhere to be found in these pics.

The third picture below that, those little rectangular pieces toward the right (and toward the left side of the next one down) are the actual cutting tools that mount in the tool post to do the cutting work for the lathe.  Those are used on metal lathes - they do not have handles.  Wood lathe tools look like long carving tools - they have longer handles on them and are generally sharpened differently, but otherwise look very similar.

Those gizmos in the second picture from the bottom (the ones that resemble teapots) are called "lathe dogs" - they are somehow related to clamping the workpiece - they seem to be common for metal lathes, but I've never seen one suggested for use with a wood lathe...

At any rate, those tools and accessories are definitely for a metal lathe.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

The turning pens was a joke.  

This is a Pattern Maker's Lathe for turning WOOD patterns to be used to make the molds to pour the iron parts.  

This was never intended, made or used to turn metal.  It spent the majority of it's life in a pattern shop in a foundry along with a bunch of other machinces this guy had.  

They are similar to a metal lathe, the cutters are similar, but this was made to make high precision parts out of wood, to be turned into iron.  The tools and accessories are made for precision work in wood. 

You could do a search for pattern makers lathes if you still think I am wrong.

It's main use for me will be porch columns.  

I can fit 8' 6" between centers and swing 24" over the bed and 20" over the cross slide.  

 

[fdengel]

Very interesting...

This one is new to me.

I'm going to need to do some reading on this.  Thanks for the tip.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

This is a good read on the subject and it just so happens to be about the company that made my lathe, Fay & Scott.

http://www.lathes.co.uk/fayscott/

 

[Frank-Jan]

Nice addition to your heavy-metal collection.

Wood lathes have a tool rest which a handled tool rests on to cut into the wood - nowhere to be found in these pics.

I spotted one on a heavy tripod in the third pic.

 

[Distinctive Interiors]

What a find.......!!!!

I for one am really looking forward to the refurbishment of this one.

I do a bit of turning (including Pens......!!! [big grin]), and turning a few spindles can be a challenge over a distance of a couple of feet, but the length of that Bed is amazing. Over 8' between centres you say?

Having the facility to do freehand work AND the cross slide as well, is so useful.

I,m really envious  [cool]
How old is the Lathe?

Tim.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

Nice addition to your heavy-metal collection.

Wood lathes have a tool rest which a handled tool rests on to cut into the wood - nowhere to be found in these pics.

I spotted one on a heavy tripod in the third pic.

That is the out board tool post.  I can turn something 8 feet in diameter on the out board end, if I feel so inclined.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

What a find.......!!!!

I for one am really looking forward to the refurbishment of this one.

I do a bit of turning (including Pens......!!! [big grin]), and turning a few spindles can be a challenge over a distance of a couple of feet, but the length of that Bed is amazing. Over 8' between centres you say?

Having the facility to do freehand work AND the cross slide as well, is so useful.

I,m really envious  [cool]
How old is the Lathe?

Tim.

Being able to do perfect cylinders and I can offset the tail stock and turn perfect tapers too.

Hard to pin down a date on Fay & Scott stuff, but an educated guess would be circa 1900, +/- 5 years or so.  It is over 100 years old. 

 

[Rick Christopherson]

A sandblaster (or even two) will certainly make your life easier for bringing this back to life. A cabinet blaster with finer media would be best for the small stuff, and a free-air blaster for the bigger stuff.

I can see the two parts of the X-Y carriage in your picture of the 3 round faceplates, but I am unclear on how it operates with templates, if it even does. I've always wanted to add an X-Y carriage to my 6-foot Oliver lathe, but never truly had enough need to go through the hassle. The best part of that is when you need a straight turning for a long column, it will be straight.

For the really long turnings, you may want to fabricate a steady rest to reduce vibration along the length. I don't have one myself, but a lot of people with long lathes just fabricate one themselves. Here's an example I pulled up from a google search, and rollerblade wheels make good bearings.

Another thing that might come in handy for porch columns is an indexing ring and router carriage for making flutes. I made one for my own lathe.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

I was already planning some sort of indexing wheel so I could flute things, I was going to try and use the cross slide to mount a router on for that.

I am also thinking that I will run the 3hp motor with a vfd so I can have even more control over the speeds. 

Evapo-Rust is great and about half of the tooling is now clean.

 

[Tinker]

Come on yee doubters.  He got that lathe from up close to Paul Buyon territory.
I'm sure Paul himself used it to turned pens for his bookkeeper, Johny Inkslinger. 
Since it can swing an outboard turning of 8 feet in diameter, i would bet Paul even turned the ink bottles to keep Johny well supplied.
Warner, you are working with history, man.  [poke]
Who else but you would bring home a pen turning lathe of such proportions.  [eek]
Tinker

 

[leakyroof]

The turning pens was a joke.  

This is a Pattern Maker's Lathe for turning WOOD patterns to be used to make the molds to pour the iron parts.  

This was never intended, made or used to turn metal.  It spent the majority of it's life in a pattern shop in a foundry along with a bunch of other machinces this guy had.  

They are similar to a metal lathe, the cutters are similar, but this was made to make high precision parts out of wood, to be turned into iron.  The tools and accessories are made for precision work in wood. 

You could do a search for pattern makers lathes if you still think I am wrong.

It's main use for me will be porch columns.  

I can fit 8' 6" between centers and swing 24" over the bed and 20" over the cross slide.  

  You beat me to it. All the tooling gave it away as a lathe that would hold tighter precision and less manual toolholding work with all those bit holders. The old lathe dogs are cool, I haven't seen those in a long time.  You will enjoy this, just be careful if you're a newbie to turning. You're not working with a toy there.. [wink]